


Miracle Man

by scullywolf



Series: TXF: Scenes in Between [18]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-29
Updated: 2015-07-29
Packaged: 2018-04-11 22:23:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4454648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scullywolf/pseuds/scullywolf





	Miracle Man

_“Mulder… What is it?”  
“It’s a girl.”  
“Who, Jessica Hahn?”  
“A_ little  _girl.”_

Poor Mulder. Regardless of whether or not Samuel was responsible for the murders, one thing he was definitely guilty of, as far as Scully was concerned, was emotionally manipulating her partner.

It wasn’t a stretch to imagine the boy had some skill in the art of cold-reading. It was a trick employed by so-called psychics, tossing out vague statements and waiting for a reaction, then using the target’s body language and responses to craft incrementally more detailed guesses, until they arrived at something so specific as to provide “proof” of their abilities. Despite -- or maybe because of -- her Catholic upbringing, Scully put about as much stock in the validity of faith healing as she did in psychic reading. It was wrong to profit from people’s desperation and gullibility, to use their faith against them. She would have thought that Mulder, who lacked any religious convictions as far as she knew, would have been invulnerable to Samuel’s tactics, but the boy had managed to find Mulder’s weak spot anyway.

The pain in his eyes was evident. Scully recognized the haunted look, remembering how she’d felt when confronted with hallucinations of her father right after his death. That particular wound was still raw enough that she understood the best thing she could do for Mulder right now was to help him stay focused on the case; giving him something concrete to focus his energy on would help restore some of the agency lost by the experience of seeing things that weren’t really there.

“Come on, Mulder.” She caught his eye and nodded toward the car. “We’ve got a couple hours before the ministry opens for business tonight. Let’s go get something to eat.”

He nodded and took one last long look toward the field before turning to walk to the car.

“So,” she said as she buckled her seatbelt, “tell me more about this theory of the body as an electromagnetic system. If Samuel  _is_  somehow capable of manipulating energy fields in the way you suggested, what should we be looking for when he comes out on stage tonight?”

He looked at her almost warily, like he wasn’t sure whether her question was genuine, then put the car in reverse. “I’m not sure, exactly. The unified biofield theory postulates that all living organisms contain something akin to a second circulatory system, though this system circulates energy rather than blood. The belief that the system can be manipulated by those who understand how is an old one, and one that is extremely common among Eastern philosophies. Acupuncture, reiki, shiatsu… proponents of these therapies claim they are capable of promoting healing by correcting imbalances in the body’s energy flow. So it stands to reason, if it is possible to heal using these techniques, then there should be an equal possibility to harm.”

Scully grimaced. Years of medical school had taught her that acupuncture and its ilk were pseudoscience at best; any perceived efficacy could be attributed to the placebo effect.

“Mulder…”

“Now, I know that Western medicine and science haven’t been able to prove any of these claims, but I would argue that they haven’t been able to fully  _disprove_  them, either. Look, I’m not saying this is absolutely what’s going on here. But given the patient histories of the people who claim to have been healed by Samuel, there do appear to be more spontaneous remissions and abatement of symptoms than you would expect to see based on mere statistical probability.”

“Even so, what we’re still lacking is a motive. Say Samuel is capable of healing. Why would he use his abilities to kill people, instead? Regardless of what he said in the bar last night, even if he believes he deserves punishment from God for sins of pride and excess, it doesn’t make sense to me that he would willfully bring that punishment upon himself by harming those who come to him for help.”

Mulder was quiet for a while, and Scully watched the Tennessee farmland roll by outside her window. She had no doubt that the boy  _believed_  he was capable of healing people and that he also believed he was to blame for the recent deaths, somehow. But she could not conceive of a scenario by which he could be actively responsible.

“I don’t know,” her partner said at last. “I’ll admit that part still doesn’t make much sense to me, either. We’ll just have to keep a close eye on him tonight, Scully. Watch his demeanor when he’s out on stage. Maybe it’s all just as simple as him not wanting to be the miracle man anymore.”


End file.
